Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A few peeks here and there

Yesterday evening I went back to the library and got 25 more prints. That made a total of 38 prints that I have checked out.
I took one to work, B. took three to work, so that makes 34 prints up in our 700 sq. ft. apartment.

Not enough art, really...

German artist Emil Nolde (1867-1956) painted the two painting on the one wall, the one above the red cutting board is by August Macke, painted in 1913.

Last night we got to know about Hans Hofman, the artist who painted the yellow and orange picture near the end of the wall. That painting "Exaltment" was painted in 1947. He had a very interesting life, beginning his artistic works under the teaching of Picasso and Monet.

Studying a picture, saying what you think about it and what it might be doing/meaning, and then looking up the artist is a very pleasant way to spend an evening.

We both commented that walking into the "gallery" first thing in the morning is quite a blast of color. We like it!

Beside our bathroom sink is this print by Bertha Morisot, one of only two women Impressionist painters.
The little girl and her doll is such a sweet picture, and Bernie says it reminds him of when Laura was a little girl and would sit on the lid of the toilet and watch him shave in the morning.
I need this amount of color at home to counter balance my grey and black windowless office at work. Today my office was in a real mess as I was dealing with organizing and labeling the spiral bound books.

The sunflower picture was on the wall of an empty office across the room. I "pillaged and plundered" and got a touch of color in my room on Monday.

While the walls may be gray and colorless, the people I work around are bright and sunny all day long. I hear laughter often, and it is a happy place to come to each morning. I usually cross the street as the church across the street chimes the hour. It is a different church from the one we hear at the apartment. This morning we had our windows open, and I was charmed to realize that at 8 am as I was putting on my make up hymns were being chimed, and I knew exactly what time it was.

Such a nice way to keep track of time!
No more fretfully checking the clock for me!

The yellow sticky notes are my constant helpers. I look up cataloging cues from the Library of Congress, then jot down the Dewey numbers, Library of Congress numbers and the subject heading on the notes. Later I create labels for each publications.

These books were all tumbled together randomly in a box when I arrived; I was the one who added all the spine labels. Neat and tidy now, and you can see the subjects within the collection now.

I get a kick out of the coloring books that have been published to help with the study of anatomy.
The first week I inventoried my periodicals, and arranged them. It is so tempting to read them; but there is sooo much work to be done, I haven't had a chance to yet.

Classifying five other library collections at the same time takes a lot of time! And it all must be done by Oct. 1st. for accreditation purposes.

Today I had finally gotten "call numbers" put on all the spiral bound books, and was in the process of getting them in order so I could put them in Oxford file box (upright magazine holders.) Suddenly the spirals started to look like stitching to me.

Maybe weavings...some of kind of textile design. I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures. I am hoping to print some of them out and use them on the black boxes around the labels.
We'll see how that goes....at least they are on the shelves and in order now.

I beat B. home today. He called from the parking lot to say he needed help bringing in some shopping.
"Shopping" turned out to be a cat tree!
Our make peace offering to our much put upon cats
They both were climbing on it before B. had even let go of it.
The cats have proven to have excellent artistic taste as well.
Paul Klee's "The Rose Garden" suited Tiggie quite well.

And it also provided a nice back drop for a small grey Tuxie cat too.

Tiggie spent a bit of time contemplating the assortment of prints.
(Pop quiz: What was the name of the artist who painted the sunflower picture at the bottom? I mentioned him at the beginning of this post!)

Except for having to blog late at night instead of in the morning, everything is just great.
The weather is warm, the sky is beautiful, and we are enjoying our Urban Apartment life.
Yes, life here is good.

5 comments:

Lovella ♥ said...

Your library work looks like you are very organized and they are very lucky that they hired you .. .they chose well.
I am amazed at all the art. . very bright and cheery. Is the art laminated? I'm wondering how careful you need to be with it ..
You might have already said this but how long are you allowed to keep the art?
It does seem odd not to have you posting in the morning. . but we can all adjust to your new job, that is the least the rest of us can do.
Will it slow down a bit after accredidation?

Anonymous said...

It must be like living in an art museum! You've got some great color and great works there! (Can you just renew the prints or do you have to return them and select new ones?)

I think you could create your own artwork with photos such as the spiral binding/stitching. That would look great in a library, too.

Spooky wants to know if she can join the boys in playing on that cat tree?

Thoughts on Life and Millinery. said...

Lovella-yes they are laminated, and nicely stand up to curious cat traffic even. They can be checked out for 28 days and I didn't check on the renewal policy. I'll have to get busy and do that. And remember to either renew or return on time...I could rack up quite a library fine other wise!

With sixteen libraries going under review between now and January, some of which are "from scratch" libraries, it will be awhile befroe I am back to my old lazy shelf.

Tiggie says Spookie is welcome anytime. And what flavor Greenies does she like for breakfast?

A Lady said...

Aw, little bugga Laura memories!!! Sooo cute. I don't remember doing that, and now the nurse in me says, ew! Leaning on a toilet lid? Grodie!
And what lucky boy kitties! New kitty furniture AND an art lesson...wow
And the coloring anatomy books, yeah I had one. Didn't learn any anatomy from it, but it sure made classes more fun!
Oh, and Hal says no greenies. Just okra.

Anonymous said...

What a nice way to change the stark "whiteness" of apartment walls ........ and yes, you don't want to forget the return date on 38 prints!

Your library looks like you've done a lot of work already, and how fortunate that you're enjoying the people and atmosphere you work in. That is worth so much. I still can't imagine being able to hear church bells all during the day - I would feel like I'm in Europe all the time!

Lori T